More data extraction

[powerstream]

The reason that I wanted a list of the product numbers is that I'm
trying to extract more data from the shopsite process.

We are using the Urchin web analysis software. They have a report
called "page query terms" that gives data on the various
scripts that are being run.

One of the reports is

-/sb/order.cgi where - is the name of our web site.

Of the parameters passed there are several that are interesting


Function: the parameters are "add" and "show." Do these count the number
of times that products were added to a shopping cart, and the
cart subsequently viewed?

Prevlocation: the parameters are web pages from our site. Can I assume
that this records where customers were when they chose "add to cart" or
"view cart?"

Itemnum" This shows how many times item number "yyy" was put on the
shopping cart?

sbid: some of these look like web addresses in numeric format, what does
it mean?

fromid: parameters are "order.cgi" and "thankyou.cgi" When are these
transmitted? Would it be right to assume that "thankyou.cgi" are only
run when the order is completed? How about "order.cgi?"

testcookie: the parameter is "on." So if there are 210 "on"s does that
mean that 210 cookies were set? Can we compare this with, say "sbid"
to see how many customers have their cookies turned off?

ip: This is also a list of internet addresses. What does this record?

There are others that I haven't mentioned, dbname, rd,shipinfo, redirect,
sl, u, prev, do any of these give clues about the shopping process?

Best regards
mark

[jim]

See answers inserted below by *****
Jim

powerstream wrote:

The reason that I wanted a list of the product numbers is that I'm
trying to extract more data from the shopsite process.

We are using the Urchin web analysis software. They have a report
called "page query terms" that gives data on the various
scripts that are being run.

One of the reports is

-/sb/order.cgi where - is the name of our web site.

Of the parameters passed there are several that are interesting


Function: the parameters are "add" and "show." Do these count the number
of times that products were added to a shopping cart, and the
cart subsequently viewed?

***** "add" is the parameter that indicates a product is suppose to be

added to the cart. "show" is the parameter used to view the cart. They
don't count, they just indicate the action to be performed.

Prevlocation: the parameters are web pages from our site. Can I assume
that this records where customers were when they chose "add to cart" or
"view cart?"

*****The prevlocation generally would be the page where they added or

viewed the cart from, but could also be from a registration page, the
billing address screen, a search page or a redirect from the cgi itself.

Itemnum" This shows how many times item number "yyy" was put on the
shopping cart?

*****itemnum could be the database record number of the product being

added to the cart from the products database or the record number in the
shopping cart itself. I'm not sure where you see this so can't
determine which it would be.

sbid: some of these look like web addresses in numeric format, what does
it mean?

*****sbid is a unique shopping basket id and could be an IP address (if

the shopper has cookies turned off) or something starting with SSM... if
cookies are enabled on the shopper's browser.

fromid: parameters are "order.cgi" and "thankyou.cgi" When are these
transmitted? Would it be right to assume that "thankyou.cgi" are only
run when the order is completed? How about "order.cgi?"

*****fromid tells which cgi called the order.cgi if it was called from

another cgi instead of an add or view cart button. thankyou.cgi handles
payment transaction, email and screen receipts etc. order.cgi is
called to add items to the cart, view the cart, do tax and shipping
calculations etc.

testcookie: the parameter is "on." So if there are 210 "on"s does that
mean that 210 cookies were set? Can we compare this with, say "sbid"
to see how many customers have their cookies turned off?
*****testcookie is used to find out if the shopper has cookies enabled

so that the shopping cart can ge tracked by cookies otherwise it is
tracked by IP

ip: This is also a list of internet addresses. What does this record?
***** ip is the internet address the shopper came from. Note that this

can change during an order as some ISPs use IP swapping routines to try
and improve security. AOL is a big one that does this.

There are others that I haven't mentioned, dbname, rd,shipinfo, redirect,
sl, u, prev, do any of these give clues about the shopping process?

*****I don't know what all of those do. dbname is the name of the

database which is probably just products, shipinfo would have something
to do with shipping address, redirect is probably used when the cgi has
to call itself for recalculating or after an attempt to set a cookie to
see if it got set.

Jim

Best regards
mark